I would your grace

Would leave your griefs and take my counsel.

QUEEN KATHERINE

How, sir?

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS

Put your main cause into the King’s protection.

He’s loving and most gracious. ’Twill be much

Both for your honour better and your cause,

For if the trial of the law o’ertake ye

You’ll part away disgraced.

CARDINAL WOLSEY (to the Queen) He tells you rightly.

QUEEN KATHERINE

Ye tell me what ye wish for both—my ruin.

Is this your Christian counsel? Out upon ye!

Heaven is above all yet—there sits a judge

That no king can corrupt.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS

Your rage mistakes us.

QUEEN KATHERINE

The more shame for ye! Holy men I thought ye,

Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues—

But cardinal sins and hollow hearts I fear ye.

Mend ’em, for shame, my lords! Is this your comfort?

The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady,

A woman lost among ye, laughed at, scorned?

I will not wish ye half my miseries—

I have more charity. But say I warned ye.

Take heed, for, heaven’s sake take heed, lest at once

The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

Madam, this is a mere distraction.

You turn the good we offer into envy.

QUEEN KATHERINE

Ye turn me into nothing. Woe upon ye,

And all such false professors. Would you have me—

If you have any justice, any pity,

If ye be anything but churchmen’s habits—

Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me?

Alas, he’s banished me his bed already—

His love, too, long ago. I am old, my lords,

And all the fellowship I hold now with him

Is only my obedience. What can happen

To me above this wretchedness? All your studies

Make me accursed like this.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS

Your fears are worse.

QUEEN KATHERINE

Have I lived thus long—let me speak myself,

Since virtue finds no friends—a wife, a true one?

A woman, I dare say, without vainglory,

Never yet branded with suspicion?

Have I with all my full affections

Still met the King, loved him next heav‘n, obeyed him,

Been out of fondness superstitious to him,

Almost forgot my prayers to content him?

And am I thus rewarded? ’Tis not well, lords.

Bring me a constant woman to her husband,

One that ne’er dreamed a joy beyond his pleasure,

And to that woman when she has done most,

Yet will I add an honour, a great patience.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

Madam, you wander from the good we aim at.

QUEEN KATHERINE

My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty

To give up willingly that noble title

Your master wed me to. Nothing but death

Shall e’er divorce my dignities.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

Pray, hear me.

QUEEN KATHERINE

Would I had never trod this English earth,

Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it.

Ye have angels’ faces, but heaven knows your hearts.

What will become of me now, wretched lady?

I am the most unhappy woman living.

(To her women) Alas, poor wenches, where are now

your fortunes?

Shipwrecked upon a kingdom where no pity,

No friends, no hope, no kindred weep for me?

Almost no grave allowed me? Like the lily,

That once was mistress of the field and flourished,

I’ll hang my head and perish.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

If your grace

Could but be brought to know our ends are honest,

You’d feel more comfort. Why should we, good lady,

Upon what cause, wrong you? Alas, our places,

The way of our profession, is against it.

We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow ’em.

For goodness’ sake, consider what you do,

How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly

Grow from the King’s acquaintance by this carriage.

The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

So much they love it, but to stubborn spirits

They swell and grow as terrible as storms.

I know you have a gentle noble temper,

A soul as even as a calm. Pray, think us

Those we profess—peacemakers, friends, and servants.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS

Madam, you’ll find it so. You wrong your virtues

With these weak women’s fears. A noble spirit,

As yours was put into you, ever casts

Such doubts as false coin from it. The King loves you.

Beware you lose it not. For us, if you please

To trust us in your business, we are ready

To use our utmost studies in your service.

QUEENS KATHERINE

Do what ye will, my lords, and pray forgive me.

If I have used myself unmannerly,

You know I am a woman, lacking wit

To make a seemly answer to such persons.

Pray do my service to his majesty.

He has my heart yet, and shall have my prayers

While I shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers,

Bestow your counsels on me. She now begs

That little thought, when she set footing here,

She should have bought her dignities so dear.

Exeunt

3.2 Enter the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Suffolk, Lord Surrey, and the Lord Chamberlain